Thursday, November 1, 2012

Help me meet one vital target in time for Christmas

In many ways things have gone well over the last few months - despite the fact that I was distracted by various other activities including entertaining an Australian visitor and two operations (the cataract in my left eye, and a small hernia repair). Despite predicting some gaps "in service" I actually achieved 36 posts in September and 38 in October. The Newsletter should reach 50,000 page views by Christmas, and hopefully will be topping 5,000 views in a month. The main web site is well on target to exceed 250,000 visits in 2012 (216,292 so far) and there will be no difficulty in meeting the target of 4,000,000 hits (3,782,947 so far). The robot that supports my search facility reached 4,000 text pages indexed this week - and in addition there are over 8,000 pictures on the main web site!

So what is the important target we are missing?

There are various places on the web site that remind you that while the site is free, people who visit the site are encouraged to make donations to help the well being of the mentally ill in Hertfordshire, and the fact that the site is dedicated to the memory of my daughters Lucy and Belinda should help you to understand why I chose this charity. If you decide to Ask Chris you will be told:

If I answer your question you will then be
invited to make a voluntary online donation to help the mentally ill in
Hertfordshire.

As my time is limited please do not ask any questions unless
you believe a satisfactory answer will be worth at least the equivalent of
the cost of a coffee and a cake at a
Starbuck's cafe (the minimum donation is £5)

Bob Cratchit with Tiny Tim who had a good Christmas because Scrooge decided to be generous

So how are the donations coming in?
The answer is very disappointing. The target for the year is £1200 - or £100 pounds a month and by the end of May the total raises was £485 - which was almost exactly on target. However for the 5 months July-October only another £110 was dropped intothe automated collecting box. With only two months to go we are £400 short of where we should be.

The important thing to remember is that the current economic situation means that there have been cuts to the NHS (described by politicians as "efficiency savings" because they don't know how to tell the truth) and there have been increased demand for the charities, such as Herts Mind Network, who are expected to provide better services for more people with less money. So your donations are even more important as Christmas approaches.

So don't be a Scrooge. If you have found this site useful please make a "Christmas Carol" donation now and help improve life for those with mental health problems who might otherwise have a depressing Christmas. (I know how some of them feel as Christmas is a time for sad memories and I am likely to become depressed if we fail to make what is a very meagre target.)

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This is the newsletter for the Genealogy in Hertfordshire Web site. Comments on this blog are moderated and may be transferred to the web site where appropriate. If you have a local or family history query you want answered you must use "Ask Chris" - See box in right hand column. Anonymous comments cannot be answered.